Florida’s Disney World has its own government? How Reedy Creek works, and what’s next
UPDATE: The Florida state legislature passed a bill seeking to dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The bill passed the state Senate Wednesday with a vote of 23-16 and on Thursday was also approved by Florida’s House of Representatives by a vote of 70-38, CNBC reported.
Did you know Walt Disney World is self-governed?
It’s a Walt Disney world after all. The House of Mouse in Orlando has its own local government. It’s called the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
What is Reedy Creek?
▪ Reedy Creek is not a county but it was created by state lawmakers in 1967 and encompasses about 25,000 acres in Orange and Osceola counties. It has two cities — Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, where Walt Disney World Resort is located.
▪ Like other cities in Florida, Reedy Creek has its own garbage pickup and fire-rescue and other emergency medical services. Reedy Creek maintains roads, levies taxes and has its own wastewater treatment plant. If it wanted to, Disney could build its own airport, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
▪ Reedy Creek encompasses 175 lane miles of roadway and 67 miles of waterway, according to its literature.
▪ Reedy Creek, however, contracts out for police services from its parent counties, Orange and Osceola.
▪ The district was granted the right to issue bonds, assess taxes and enforce its own safety codes, according to The Associated Press.
Why is Reedy Creek in the news?
But Reedy Creek may be in jeopardy.
READ MORE: DeSantis asks Legislature to eliminate Disney World’s self-governing status
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling on the Legislature, which is undergoing a special session on redistricting this week, to consider terminating all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968, including Reedy Creek.
The Senate passed the proposal in a 23-16 vote on Wednesday. The House of Representatives also passed the measure by a vote of 70-38 on Thursday.
The clash between man and Mouse came in March days after Walt Disney World announced it would be pausing political donations in Florida due to the passing of the Parental Rights in Education bill, which opponents have dubbed as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
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While Florida dukes it out with Mickey, here are some other Reedy Creek facts to know:
What Disney parks are in Reedy Creek boundaries?
▪ Disney’s four theme parks in the Orlando area — Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios — and its two water parks Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon are in the boundaries of Reedy Creek.
Why is there a special district?
▪ Walt Disney’s brother, Roy, pushed Florida lawmakers to create the Reedy Creek Improvement District because the company needed independence from local governments so it could build its Experimental Prototype Community of tomorrow, also known as Epcot, according to an Associated Press article published in the Miami Herald in December 2004. Walt envisioned Epcot as an actual city, but after his death in 1966, plans changed and Epcot turned into a theme park. Epcot opened in 1982.
But really, it was also an incentive to entice the Disney company to open a major tourist attraction in Florida. Walt Disney already operated the popular Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California, since 1955. Walt Disney World in the Orlando area opened on Oct. 1, 1971.
On May 12, 1967, Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr. signed a charter creating the Reedy Creek Improvement District that helped seal the deal.
READ MORE: The secret Florida land deal that became Walt Disney World
Why is it named Reedy Creek?
The name Reedy Creek is taken from the name of a stream that crosses Disney’s property.
Who lives in Reedy Creek?
Disney employees — called “cast members” — and their families live in Reedy Creek, according to an Orlando Sentinel report. According to a 2015 Orlando Sentinel article, “Each [family] owns their mobile home and pays Disney $75 a month to rent the lot space. In exchange, the residents provide the votes needed on issues such as approval of bonds for park improvements.”
Can Legislature dissolve a district?
The Florida Legislature can dissolve a district but it’s not so simple. According to state statute 189.072 a majority of the residents would have to vote in favor of dissolving the district. And since most Reedy Creek homeowners are Disney employees that would be unlikely.
If Reedy Creek is dissolved, Orange and Osceola counties would assume responsibilities handled by the district like sewer and road maintenance, meaning taxpayers in those counties would pay. Taxpayers would also collect the tax revenue Disney pays itself, WFTV 9, an ABC affiliate in Orange County explains. But these counties’ residents would also absorb a lot of debt, too. That debt is no small number: a reported $1 billion.
If Reedy Creek gets dissolved, it would be on June 1, 2023.
What Carl Hiaasen said about Reedy Creek
Carl Hiaasen, the former Miami Herald columnist and author, wrote the book, Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World, in 1998. In the not altogether flattering book, Hiaasen, a Florida native, might have made some Disney and Reedy Creek reps as crabby as Donald Duck when he referred to Reedy Creek as a “shell municipality.”
In a review of “Team Rodent,” The New York Times opined: “Mr. Hiaasen’s sharp irreverence works wonderfully, as he takes jabs at Disney’s new cruise ship and privately owned Caribbean island; its chairman, Michael D. Eisner, and what he calls its “shell municipality” in Florida — the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a kind of parallel government, a ‘Vatican with mouse ears,’ in the words of a friend he quotes.
This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 5:03 PM.
